Next Stop: Konya

Thursday, 14 January 2016

I'm so happy that I can write next post of my "Next destination ..." rubric. As I told in last post I spend some time in Turkey- mostly I was in my second hometown Konya, where I hugged my old friends and meet with new ones, ate the best waffles in the world, took my friends to their first ice skating and showed how to make ginger breads. I also visited Eskisher which is the capital of students and I said "hi" to Istanbul, where I was on this sad day when there was an explosion in beautiful area. Luckily I was only in airport, but 2 weeks before I visited some popular places of Istanbul and less than year ago I visited Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. Honestly, I don't know how to react- my friends are living in there and I want to visit this country again, so this news touched me a lot, but I believe that we all have our destiny and I don't know enough to discuss who is guilty and bad, so I will talk about things what I know and felt!

Location:

Turkey, Middle-Anatolia

From Istanbul ~700 km and from Ankara ~250 km.

Durnation of trip:

17 days.

Travelling to destination:

*First flight was from Tallinn to Istanbul (3 hours), next one was from Istanbul to Konya (1 hour), way back was the same.

*Plus: Estonians needs visa only then if they will be there more than 90 days. I used Turkish Airlines company, I like their polite service and free food! I prefered to go to from Istanbul to Konya by plane, because the same way by bus is 10 hours long.

Minus: As I bought tickets separately then I needed to be careful with my luggage and Istanbul-Konya ticket so I needed to ask extra paper from Turkish Airlines information desk before check-in desk to send my luggage directly to Konya. Also I recommend to buy domestic tickets as soon as possible (after international flight ofc) otherwise there is a possibility to not get those tickets and spend 14 hours before international flight in airport like I did because of my stupid mistake. Also I recommend to take time, at least 2 hours, between flights- Atatürk airport in Istanbul is big and passport control lines are long.

PS! It is much better to go to passport control in the night, workers are much relaxed. One of the workers asked to take photos of me, the last photo is proof of it!

About local life:

*Konya is one of the most religious cities in Turkey, so to girls I warmly recommend to wear short skirts and shorts only with leggings or with thick tights, even if it's very nice weather, there is always option to wear long skirts and dresses.

*To visit mosques girls needs to wear scarf and long dress or skirt, for boys it is not polite to go there whit shorts, also everybody needs to take off their shoes.

*There is not so much sightseers in Konya, in my opinion it is possible to visit this place in 2 days.

*In Konya I recommend to use tram, buses are small, full of people and without certain stops. For the tram it is necessary to buy a card and load money, which is possible to do almost in every tram stop. Those boxes are not opened all the time.

Accommodation:

Sadly I don't have any good tips for that, I have lived only in only dormitory what was for student and this time I stayed at my friends place.

Sightseers:

One of my fouvorite place is Mevlana museum, which is one of the most important sightseers in Konya, take your scarf with you! Around Mevlana there are some markets where you can find good souvenirs and some local stuff. I also really like Sille village with it's hills and church. There are some rooms inside of hills and if to think about local religion then the church is quite ordinary building.

Places to eat:

*There is a lot of places where to eat, but most of my favourite places are in Bosna Hersek district, which is by tram an hour away from city center- there was my university and dormitory.

I love Pizza House which is in Kent Plaza, there is so yummy pasta! I also recommend to try "etliekmek" which is kind of local pizza and waffles, they are real sugar bombs! While visitng Selcuk University go to Milano Cafe, on Friday evenings my friends is singing there!

Free time:

The must-do thing in Konya is to see Dervish dance, which is connected with Mevlana and religion. It is possible to see it on every Saturday. Also there is a chance to spend some time in real hookah places, my favourite place is Medrese Tarihi Kahvehanesi, where's also a lot of historical things and nice snacks. And also in Konya there is enough places where to shop- at least in Estonia we don't have most of their shops so it is double joy to get some new things!